Meal kits have dramatically evolved since the 1950s TV dinner. Today, there are dozens of companies that inspire people to start cooking. However, many people (particularly New Yorkers) don’t like to cook and are left scrolling Seamless or DoorDash to choose the best delivery option, which isn’t usually the healthiest. KAIGO is the healthy, membership solution that offers personalized, dietician-approved meals. When users join KAIGO they complete an assessment that includes a questionnaire, bloodwork, and medical history review. Once the initial assessment is completed, KAIGO’s AI, personal dietician arranges a meal plan that is supported by input and guidance from local chefs and restaurants who will build personalized meals delivered right to users’ door. Manhattan restaurants that have partnered with KAIGO include hotspots, ABC Cocina and The Butcher’s Daughter. KAIGO currently offers its plan in NYC and San Francisco, and memberships begin at $249 per month.
AlleyWatch sat down with Cofounder and CEO Uzochukwu Chima to learn more about the insipirsation behind KAIGO, the company’s trajectory, and recent seed round.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
KAIGO closed a $3M round of seed funding from angel investors including Mike Lee, Founder of MyFitnessPal, and Micromanagement Ventures, founded by the late former NBA commissioner David Stern.
Tell us about the product or service that KAIGO offers.
KAIGO is a dietitian designed, AI-driven end-to-end nutrition platform that delivers personalized nutrition for an individual’s health needs.
KAIGO believes excellent health begins with the right nutrition. Our mission is to help members gain access to the healthiest individualized meals possible while reclaiming the time and headspace to focus on the other important areas of life. Our vision is to drastically reduce the global occurrence of chronic illness by uncomplicating the process of finding, preparing and eating meals personalized for one’s individual health needs.
Users can access Kaigo by going on our website to complete the initial questionnaire and begin the assessment. A KAIGO medical partner will then review your bloodwork and medical history, identifying your individual health needs. Next, a KAIGO partner dietitian develops a personalized nutrition plan designed to support your health goals. KAIGO’s AI-driven technology arranges your personal, dietitian guided meal plans to be designed, sourced and prepared by our local chefs and restaurant partners.
The best part! Enjoy delicious, healthy and personalized meals that show up to your door from some of NYC’s best restaurants including The Beet Table, ABC Cocina, The Butcher’s Daughter and San Francisco hotspots like Kitava, Stone Mill Matcha and Little Gem.
What inspired the start of KAIGO?
I founded KAIGO out of the need to bring a higher level of care and service to a close relative who was battling a long-term illness. When hope was fading and I realized there was no protocol in place to create a healthy inner balance via any nutritional components or specialized plan, I decided that something needed to be done to help not only my loved one but so many other families. KAIGO believes that proper nutrition is one of the most important components of curing and preventing disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 60% of Americans have a chronic illness, that in turn are the leading causes of death and disability. The more I learned about chronic diseases, the more passionate I became about finding a nutrition-focused solution.
How is KAIGO different?
KAIGO utilizes a three-pronged system to provide members with our unique approach to wellness and treatment for chronic symptoms. We believe that healthy and personalized food is the best form of medicine. By working closely with our 1,000+ medical providers from care systems like Mount Sinai Hospitals and NYU, combined with our technology platform, allows for real-time adjustments to be made to your health plan; making goals achievable and forming long term, healthy habits.
The process begins with an assessment powered by health and nutrition professionals. Our physicians and dieticians then create a customized guide to healthy eating based on your current physical condition and lifestyle.
KAIGO is the only nutrition platform to offer a medically driven end-to-end nutrition solution. Many companies provide meal plans and recommendations, but KAIGO’s goal is to make sure that individualized, physician and dietician plans are sourced, prepared and delivered right to your table. With our recent funding round, we plan to provide a wider range of meal options and offer meal delivery to more cities throughout the country.
What market does KAIGO target and how big is it?
6 out of 10 adults in America (over 130M people nationwide) suffer from at least one chronic disease, including heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and Alzheimer’s among others. Chronic illness is the leading driver of nearly $3.5T in annual healthcare costs across the US. KAIGO is the solution via our personalized nutrition assessments and end-to-end meal delivery service currently available in New York City and San Francisco, with additional cities launching soon.
Nominations are now open for AlleyWatch’s 2020 NYC Tech Influencers feature. Know someone amazing who belongs on this list? Nominate them today here. Nominations open until 2/14. Looking to drive targeted response from the NYC Tech community at scale, learn more about partnering with AlleyWatch on this initiative here.
Who do you consider to be your primary competitors?
Existing meal kit companies operate in the same space, but we have seen their popularity decline as members demand locally sourced, easy to make (or already prepared) meals. Further, they do not offer meal plans based on real medical assessments. Other companies deliver meals locally without taking the health of the member into consideration. KAIGO’s platform addresses these issues with our end-to-end platform that not only provides a medically driven solution but goes a step further to source, prepare and deliver meals right to members’ tables. We believe this is the most effective way to drive behavior change and prevent chronic disease.
What’s your business model?
Our membership subscriptions consist of a one-time fee of $299 for our personalized assessments, followed by a monthly fee of $249 to have meals planned, prepared and delivered (currently available in NYC and SF), plus the cost of the meals themselves.
What was the funding process like?
It has been an incredibly invigorating and exciting process to communicate KAIGO’s story and find a variety of mission-connected investment partners who are just as energized as we are by our long-term vision to affect healthy change for millions.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Finding the right partners can be a difficult task. We are very fortunate and excited to work with influential investors like Mike Lee, the founder of MyFitnessPal and Micromanagement Ventures, which was founded by former NBA commissioner David Stern.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
The data speaks for itself – with over 60% of Americans suffering from a chronic illness there is a significant demographic that needs our services. Further, the traction and rapid growth amongst our members and medical partners adds evidence and lends the type of credibility investors are keen to identify as areas of opportunity.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We hope to announce a significant advancement in our technology in the next few months and have plans to launch our meal delivery service in several major cities including L.A, Washington D.C, Chicago and Dallas.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
We bootstrapped KAIGO without any external investment for over 4 years. My advice to any startup is to find ways to prove your concept and lean on your own experience and resources to narrow down a network of early adopters. Consider all angles of evidence and ‘wow’ factors that will appeal to people and organizations. Keep expenses low until you start to see enough adaptation to scale. Once you’re ready to seek capital, remember that the most valuable investment partners bring more than just money to the relationship including their network, mentorship and strategic advice.
We bootstrapped KAIGO without any external investment for over 4 years. My advice to any startup is to find ways to prove your concept and lean on your own experience and resources to narrow down a network of early adopters.
We bootstrapped KAIGO without any external investment for over 4 years. My advice to any startup is to find ways to prove your concept and lean on your own experience and resources to narrow down a network of early adopters.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We are currently focused on further developing our powerful AI component as well as expanding our team of engineers, medical technology and culinary experts, developing even more ways for members to take their health into their own hands.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
It’s so hard to choose but some of our client favorites are ABC Cocina, The Butcher’s Daughter, Hu Kitchen, and Little Beet Table!
Nominations are now open for AlleyWatch’s 2020 NYC Tech Influencers feature. Know someone amazing who belongs on this list? Nominate them today here. Nominations open until 2/14. Looking to drive targeted response from the NYC Tech community at scale, learn more about partnering with AlleyWatch on this initiative here.
